Ep 111: Living Resistance: A Call for These Times with Poet Kaitlin Curtice

In a world heavy with heartbreak and injustice, I’ve been searching for ways to stay grounded in my humanity…ways to resist not only despair, but also the systems of harm and oppression around us.

My guest today, Kaitlin Curtice, calls this practice living resistance. Kaitlin is an award-winning author, poet, and citizen of the Potawatomi Nation who writes and speaks at the intersections of spirituality, identity, and collective healing. Through her work, including her book Living Resistance and her upcoming release Everything Is a Story, she invites us to become more fully ourselves, to honor the gifts we already hold, and to let those gifts ripple out in love, courage, and care for the world.

Her life has been shaped by liminality, existing between her Native American heritage and a Southern Baptist Christian upbringing. This in-between space has given her a unique lens on how we find belonging and move toward healing in a fractured world.

In our conversation, Kaitlin shares how resistance is not a single act but a continuous practice of becoming and being. She reflects on how it can be gentle and fierce, personal and political, and she offers practices for grounding ourselves in the midst of life’s spiral journeys. We closed with her Resistance Commitment—a poetic call to action that reminds us that living resistance means tending to our inner lives while courageously shaping our collective future.

I’m so grateful to my friend and former guest Rachel Macy Stafford, who first connected me to Kaitlin. Rachel’s dedication to Kaitlin in this episode captures what Kaitlin offers the world—a call to link the best parts of ourselves so we can move forward together.

Topics Discussed in this Episode:

• Growing up in liminality, navigating the complexity between Native American and Southern Baptist cultures
• The cyclical, spiral nature of growth and how we revisit challenges with new wisdom
• Discovering your unique voice and purpose through what has “always been there for you”
• Living resistance as a daily practice, using our everyday lives to push back against injustice and nurture a sense of  wholeness
• Embodiment practices that can reconnect you with your body after trauma
• How rock climbing became Kaitlin’s  family’s  practice for presence and connection
• Building community in both physical and virtual spaces and the importance of “third places” where you can be fully yourself
• Seasonal living as an alternative to linear goal-setting
• The power of words, poetry, and storytelling as forms of spiritual activism and as sources of healing 

About Kaitlin

Kaitlin Curtice is an award-winning author, poet-storyteller, and public speaker. As an enrolled citizen of the Potawatomi nation, Kaitlin writes on the intersections of spirituality and identity and how that shifts throughout our lives. She also speaks on these topics to diverse audiences who are interested in truth-telling and healing. 

As an inter-spiritual advocate, Kaitlin participates in conversations on topics such as colonialism in faith communities, and she has spoken at many conferences on the importance of inter-faith relationships. Kaitlin leads workshops and retreats, as well as lectures and keynote presentations, ranging from panels at the Aspen Climate Conference to speaking at the Chautauqua Institution and at universities, private retreat centers, and churches across the country. 

In 2020 Kaitlin’s award-winning book Native: Identity, Belonging and Rediscovering God won Georgia Author of the Year in the religion category. Native explores the relationship between American Christianity and Indigenous peoples, drawing on Kaitlin’s experiences as a Potawatomi woman.

In 2023, Kaitlin released two books, first, Living Resistance: An Indigenous Vision for Seeking Wholeness Every Day, which examines the journey of resisting the status quo of hate by caring for ourselves, one another, and Mother Earth, and second, her first children’s book called Winter’s Gifts: An Indigenous Celebration of Nature, which is the premier book in a series of four books on the four seasons coming out with Convergent, RandomHouse Books. Her second book in the series called Summer’s Magic was released in 2024.

Besides her books, Kaitlin has written online for Sojourners, Religion News Service, On Being, SELF Magazine, Oprah Daily, and more. Her work has been featured on CBS and in USA Today. She also writes essays and poetry for The Liminality Journal and spends her time supporting other authors as they navigate the world of publishing. Kaitlin lives near Philadelphia with her partner, two dogs, and two kids.

Connect with Kaitlin:

• Website | www.kaitlincurtice.com
• Instagram | www.instagram.com/kaitlincurtice

Explore Kaitlin’s Writing:

• “Living Resistance” by Kaitlin Curtice
• “Everything is a Story” by Kaitlin Curtice – available for preorder 
• Liminality Journal (Kaitlin’s Substack)

This Episode’s Challenge:

Kaitlin offered us a beautiful challenge to shift from linear thinking to cyclical thinking. She invited us to try two practices: first, draw five circles on paper representing different aspects of your life (work, family, hobbies, etc.) to see the vastness of who you are from a bird’s eye view. Second, instead of making yearly resolutions, evaluate your life every season – asking what needs to shift in your daily rhythms, self-care, and relationships as the seasons change. As she put it “We don’t have to expect so much of ourselves… It’s a lot more tender to us if we say, “I’m going to try this out for the next few months.” Both practices help us look at our lives without judgment while gently challenging ourselves to grow.

Related Episodes: 

• Ep 74: Living and Loving with Authenticity with Hands Free Mama Rachel Macy Stafford
• Ep 16: Rising Up with Paola Mendoza
• Ep 94: Dear Body: Reflections on Embracing and Embodying 50

This Episode is Dedicated by Rachel Macy Stafford

Rachel Macy Stafford is a New York Times bestselling author, educator, and speaker with over 25 years of experience in teaching and writing. With a Master’s degree in Special Education and a background as a certified special education teacher, Rachel brings a heart-centered approach to her work—emphasizing connection, inclusion, and self-awareness.

Since 2014, Rachel has published five bestselling books, including Hands Free Mama, Only Love Today, and Soul Shift, and expanded her reach with an audio series and book from Sounds True. Rachel also created a transformative eight-week online course that has engaged over 15,000 participants and writes Rachel’s Treehouse, a Substack newsletter dedicated to cultivating meaningful connection, self-compassion, and collective care through weekly essays and monthly live teachings.

Rachel leads retreats and workshops at renowned centers like Kripalu, Omega Institute, and the Art of Living Retreat Center, and speaks at events across the country.

🌱Experience Rachel’s Work… 

 If you’re navigating a season of change, letting go, or becoming…

You’re not alone. Consider joining me in person or in the Treehouse this fall:

🌿Only Love Today: A Restorative Retreat for Givers

🗓 November 7–9, 2025

📍 Art of Living Retreat Center, North Carolina

This soul-soothing weekend is for those who give deeply and often forget to receive. We’ll rest, reflect, and reconnect with the parts of ourselves we’ve put on hold. There’s still space to join—learn more or sign up here.

🏡Rachel’s Treehouse

Part journal, part gathering place—Rachel’s Treehouse is where Rachel reflects on midlife, empty-nesting, and what it means to dream again. If you’ve been asking, “What now?” This is a space to land, reconnect, and rediscover. Join the community here.

—

Mother’s Quest is a podcast for moms who are ready to live a truly E.P.I.C. life.

Join in for intimate conversations with a diverse group of inspiring mothers as they share how they are living an E.P.I.C. life, Engaging mindfully with their children (E), Passionately and Purposefully making a difference beyond their family (P), Investing in themselves (I), and Connecting to a strong support network (C). In celebration of our 100th episode, we invite you to help us spread the word by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. Help us reach 100 + reviews to honor 100 + episodes of the Mother’s Quest Podcast! You can also support the podcast by making a contribution or joining one of our memberships at Ko-Fi.com. 

Join our community of mothers to light the way and sustain you on your quest at www.facebook.com/groups/mothersquest